Lance Parkin
Lance Parkin is an author who has written professional Doctor Who fiction since the 1990s. He is one of the few authors to write for both the 1963 and 2005 version of the programme — though much of his fiction has actually been based on the 1996 iteration. Indeed, he was notably the first author to write original prose for the Eighth Doctor in The Dying Days. He was also the author chosen to deliver the nominal 35th anniversary story, The Infinity Doctors, and the final volume in the Eighth Doctor Adventures range, The Gallifrey Chronicles. More recently, he has written for the Tenth Doctor in The Eyeless.
He is further notable for his work with Big Finish Productions, where he is arguably most known for writing the Sixth Doctor adventure, Davros. He has also written most of the non-fiction book AHistory that attempts to make a consistent and linear timeline for all Doctor Who stories.
Outside of Doctor Who, he has written things like (with Mark Jones) Dark Matter, a guide to the author Philip Pullman.
Writing novels
Parkin's shortest ever pitch for a novel was, "I'll set it on Mars!", when Virgin editor Rebecca Levene said that she needed a Bernice Summerfield book in six weeks.[1]
His final pitch to Levene was for The Dying Days and went (something like), "Twenty years ago Dan Dare discovered the truth about Mars, and Francis Urquart (the Prime Minister from the House of Cards series) put him in prison. Now he's escaped."[1] Parkin has noted that Just War was a reaction to Timewyrm: Exodus.
I like the book, and at the time I was preparing the original submission (Autumn 1993), it was one of the best of the range. It's still very popular - which is why the blurb I wrote for Just War makes it sound like a sequel! There were problems, though: my main criticism being the depiction of Hitler. The frightening thing, to my mind, is that Hitler wasn't possessed by the devil or the Timewyrm; he was just an ordinary man. Steinmann is a reaction to the Exodus Hitler — a talented, intelligent, cultured man who chooses to be a Nazi. That is much scarier than the thought he's been hypnotised by aliens. ...Hitler, of course, isn't mentioned once in Just War — I wanted to try and explore the Nazi mentality without needing to refer to him."
In the three years between writing The Infinity Doctors and Father Time, Parkin worked as a storyline editor for Emmerdale. He also wrote a synopsis for a book that was to have been published in the slot that Parallel 59 occupies, known as Enemy of the Daleks.[2] Parkin has also admitted that he "relies on 'continuity references' in my books, and I still do to an extent – but references to the spirit, not the letter. It's good to be looking forward, not back. It's good to have the Doctor centre stage, as the protagonist." In particular following events of The Ancestor Cell/The Burning.[2]
On the EDAs as a whole; "I think that particularly from The Burning to, say, Time Zero, they're just about all as good as the NAs, which is about the highest praise I have for Doctor Who."[3]
When writing The Gallifrey Chronicles he noted, "It seems absolutely bizarre to say it at this point but the BBC were keeping their options open. If Doctor Who had bombed on telly, it would have been over and done in thirteen weeks. So part of the brief was to leave things open just in case the EDAs needed to pick up just where they'd left off!"[3] However Parkin has noted concerning The Gallifrey Chronicles and its relation to the new series
It's not an open ending - we know what happens because we saw the result on telly. The Doctor gets his memory back, the Doctor restores Gallifrey, the Doctor wins . . . then at what must be his all time high, it's all taken from him. And it's this great big epic story full of mysteries and huge events far too grand to spell out in a book on or TV. A lot of people, wanted a book where the Doctor was led to a big glowing ball of his memories and he grabbed it with both hands and went 'Drahvins . . . Voord . . . Nimons . . . that bit in The Dæmons where Bessie's got a remote control . . . I remember it all!' and I understand that impulse, but . . . well, we know he got his memories back. We don't need to see and be spoonfed everything.
Bibliography
Novels
Virgin New Adventures
Virgin Missing Adventures
Virgin Bernice Summerfield New Adventures
- Beige Planet Mars (with Mark Clapham)
BBC Past Doctor Adventures
BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures
BBC Tenth Doctor Adventures
Big Finish Bernice Summerfield series
Faction Paradox
Time Hunter
Short stories
Virgin Decalogs
Short Trips
- Short Trips and Side Steps - A Town Called Eternity (with Mark Clapham)
- Short Trips: A Universe of Terrors - The Exiles
- Short Trips: Steel Skies - Doing Time
- Short Trips: Life Science - Echo
- Short Trips: 2040 - Observer Effect
Big Finish Bernice Summerfield series
- A Life of Surprises - Paydirt
- Collected Works - Anightintheninthage
- Secret Histories - A Game of Soldiers
- Present Danger - Winging It
Iris Wildthyme
Audio
Big Finish Bernice Summerfield series
- Just War (adapted by Jacqueline Rayner)
- The Extinction Event
- Venus Mantrap (with Mark Clapham)
Big Finish main range
I, Davros
Novel Adaptations
BBV Productions
Comics
Writer / Letterer
Reference books
External links
- Official blog
- Lance Parkin at the Faction Paradox wiki
- Official Facebook page
- BBC Website Interview with Lance Parkin 01 January 2004
- Interview with Lance Parkin Interview by Graeme Burk (Originall published in Enlightenment, republished on Outpost Gallifrey
- Lost Luggage.org.uk Doctor Who and Mythology, by Lance Parkin
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Interview with Lance Parkin Interview by Graeme Burk (Originally published in Enlightenment, republished on Outpost Gallifrey via Internet Archive: Wayback Machine
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 BBC Website Interview with Lance Parkin 01 January 2004 via Internet Archive: Wayback Machine
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Unreality SF Lance Parkin interview Part 1
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